Tuesday, June 9, 2015

No. 23 Simon Davis

First Prog: 992

Latest Prog: 1935 Slaine:
the Brutania Chronicles is coming to a close all too soon (but gearing up for a third book at the very
least). I feel we’re owed at least one more Ampney
Crucis, too, to tie that story up, but I could be wrong. And maybe, just maybe, there'll be a final last and ultimate Sinister Dexter story from his pen.

First Meg: 2.30 (or 50)

Latest Meg: 327 (on the cover; not seen inside since Black Siddha ended in 252)

Unlike a number of art
droids who got their break in the early 1990s - post Bisley - Simon Davis
always wanted to paint. Inspired by the work of the same Simon Bisley to
believe that a painter could actually produce comic strip art, Davis found a way in. It’s noteworthy,
therefore, that unlike some artists of the day who either wanted to or were
asked to be like Bisley, Davis’s
art has never looked even remotely Bisley-like.

Come to that, he’s not
like any comics artist I can think of at all. There’s a touch of the European
about it, and a big dollop of British, but it’s quite apart from the fleshy
fantasy of a Frazetta or the conservative heroism of an Alex Ross.

Creepy and moody
Words by Pat Mills

Davis mixes shadows and light, and super-rough with hyper-realism

In your face action
Words by Pat Mills

Clearly an incredibly
competent painter from the start, his early strip work didn’t really grab me.
Sure, it livened up episodes of Missionary
Man with the gleefully OTT expressions on Preacher Cain’s stubblicious,
eyebrow-covered face, but it felt a tad stilted.

But then David Bishop, evidently
a big fan, had the bright idea to put him on Sinister Dexter, and suddenly Davis
came to life in my eyes.

Simon picks up the pencils to render Judge Anderson. Dude can draw!
Words by John Wagner

The sort of clowns Sinsiter Dexter used to battle on a weekly basis. Davis takes the writer's basic idea and runs with it...
Words by Dan Abnett

I’ve assumed, perhaps
wrongly, that Davis
uses a fair bit of photo-referencing to get human poses and facial expressions
right. As with photo-strip comics, this can result in stiff-looking panels and,
at its worst, distracts from the storytelling. But I’ve found that Davis knows how to add
either atmosphere, humour or both to great effect, making his strip work come
alive. Honestly, a lot of this is in the costumes but mostly it’s the gurning
that Davis puts his characters through that is every bit as ‘cartoony’ as Ron
Smith, Ian Gibson or even Leo Baxendale, to slot in a Beano reference. It
meshes well with Abnett’s machine-pun writing, too.

With his background in
portraiture, it’s not surprising Davis
has been called upon plenty of times to have a go at likenesses, most overtly BLAIR 1, but here he is casually
dropping Amitabh Bachchan and Peter Stringfellow in Black Siddha (at Pat Mills's request?).

Words by Pat Mills

On first viewing it does lift you out of the story,
but by the second or third panel the humour kicks in again and it just seems to
fit. Byt the time he began working on Ampney Crucis, I’ve found that Davis’s art has lost
pretty much all trace of the photo-referenced feel – despite the overt
self-portrait of one character. Maybe it’s the period setting and
stiff-upper-lip tone, but for whatever reason the style fits the story.

He’s also unbelievably
quick! I mean, he gets through a heck of a lot of multi-episode series in a
year. And yet it retains that finished painted look, really not a million miles
from his fine art work. I’m sure Tharg has faster pensmiths on his head dial,
but when you factor in the detail and sheer amount of paint Davis splashes on
the page, it’s worth celebrating. I will concede that sometimes, Davis prefers to nip in
and out of a panel quickly, rather than letting anything linger…

Dredd and Orlok shootout. Amazing.
Words by John Wagner

But he’s made this
something of a stylistic flourish, and it generally works in service to the
story. And no one would accuse him of not being able to draw! Especially when another Davis trick is to liven up dialogue sequences with extreme close-ups, still fully painted:

You don't even need the whole face to demonstrate body language.
Words by Ian Edginton

All this said, I’m
aware that the same photo-protraiture style turns plenty of people off. A
shame.

But painting well and
throwing in comedy expressions isn’t Davis’s only trick – he’s something of a
horror great, crafting some eyepopping/
skin-flaying gore in Stone Island,
while also mixing up one of the best ‘alien body trapped in a human housing’
monsters. (Actually, I’m not especially keen on the look of the aliens as
aliens, but when housed in human felsh, they’re amazing).

Harry Rivers, the shell of a man housing the body of an extra-dimensional beastie.
Laughter by Ian Edginton

And then in Damnation Station he did something
amazingly ethereal with his colours to create a truly horrific
extra-dimensional being(s). (I'm afraid I don't have a scan of this at the moment; had to steal from Colin Smith again)

This creature is creepy enough in the scratchy style; imagine the full-on face front version!
Words by Al Ewing

Most recently, on Slaine, Davis is bringing a new game to the table,
full of greenery and blood and bodies and world-weariness. It’s a classic in
the making (I wouldn’t mind a bit more clarity in the plot department, but I’ll
forgive that if it gives Davis
the chance to craft truly giant giants, and hordes of rampaging Trojans).

Of all the new breed
that started working for Tharg in the 90s, I doubt I’d have picked ‘SB Davis’
as one who’d go on to become a 2000 AD mainstay, but here he is, a twice-annual
fixture (at least), and getting better all the time.

Personal favourites:

Judge Dredd: The Secret Life of Judge PalSinister Dexter: Murder 101, Eurocrash, Oh Kal Cutter, And
Death shall have no Dumb Minions

*Davis and Flint are essentially neck and neck at this point. I guess whoever gets the next cover or full series in print will take a short lead for a while.**the third highest cover count behind Carlos Ezquerra at number 2 but he's closing in fast!
And number 1? That would be telling (but it won't be a surprise, I'm sure)